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Show I j. :. Making Arid Land Fertile Director Newclot Reclamation) I J WASHINGTON, Aug. (J. On tho . m Eocoud Sunday after Theodore Itoose- ; ; ! velt became president of the United i States ho held a conferonco at tho i: j homo of his sister in this city, F, IT. J7ewell being one who was there. ; ; j For thirteen years Newell had been 1 j measuring the rivers and studying the ; dry lands of tho west. Pinchot. on foot I and horseback, had examined the for- i cts of the cast, the south, the Rocky ! I mountains, and tho Pacific coast.. Son- ! ator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada jj ! and Georgo Tlobard Maxwell, a law- - , yer in Chicago, hnd persistently and ' .' intelligently agitated iho question of f government water for tho govern- ' ment's deserts. Everybody- said- that 1 1 soraothing should be done, but bills ' failed in congress because of disputes concerning objects and methods. Born at Bradford, Pa., forty-eight ' ; years ago, Mr. Newell was graduated i ' i from tho Massachusetts Institute of 1 i Technology as a mining engineer at the j . age of 23. Modest, courteous, and res- j Iolute, understanding historic from per-( per-( sonal investigation in tho Hold, where he has camped out. and lived on tho , , trail for weeks at a time: he has the HJT support and respect of members of con- IJ gross from tho west and of the im- ; aginative and progressive men who have labored for years to reclaim the dry lands that aro now being made to blossom like old-fashioned flower gardens. Tho father of Mr. Newell was a civil engineer and a contractor. Ho built a branch of the Erio railroad from Sala-' Sala-' manca. N. Y.. to Bradford, taking tho track finally because ho could not get pay for his work by any other procedure. proced-ure. I Borrows Scythe to Mow Weeds. "The roadbed was overgrown with weeds," Mr. Newell said to me, "and I, my father, reduced to poverty, had to , borrow a scythe with which to cut them I down. Ho mowed the right of way for fifteen miles the length of the lino and then borrowed an old fiat car, on which ho placed a borrowed stationary engine, bolting it to tho axle. "Having equipped tho road with rolling stock, ho operated it for some time, being engineer, fireman, brake-man, brake-man, conductor and proprietor. Tho fare from Bradford to Salamanca was 50 cents. Revenue was' also obtained from freight. Ultimately the Erio com-, com-, pany paid the debt and elected father a member of its board of directors. 1 carl' learned the use of tools and to j be resourceful in devising ways of , meeting unexpected situations. Many a time my father was without a penny in his pocket. Money might bo due him, but he couldn't get it. So I was brought up in tho school of shifts and expedients, and tho lessons T learned in my youth have- helped me often in my present business.' "How many irrigation projects have been completed by the government, and how much land has been redeemed?" I asked Mr. Newell. "About twenty-fivo projects in fourteen four-teen slates aro either in operation or under way of construction, and most of thorn arc returning revenue to the government. gov-ernment. In nil. 1)00,000 acres of laud hnve been given water and half of ir. is in actual use that is, crops arc hcing grown on ground that was a desert until un-til rccentlv. When all tho projects arc finished somo 3.000,000 micros will have been reclaimed and put to tho plow.1-' "How much money has tho government govern-ment spent?" Money Will Be Returned. "At the end of the year tho total ox-pendit'urcs ox-pendit'urcs will amount to $61,391,000, all of which will he returned in course of time by the owners of tho land that has been irrigated. I suppose $10,-000,000 $10,-000,000 annually will be appropriated by Congress during the next decado. How much will be spent altogether cannot bo estimated. The city, of Washington is being built. There is no way of telling the cost of the completed city. Work will go on indefinitely. It will be so, T daro say. with the irrigation irriga-tion undertakings of tho national government." gov-ernment." "The money, you sa-" will como back?" "Evcr.y dollar of it will bo repaid, unloss the laws aro changed. Irrigation projects had engaged the capital and skill of private companies for 'many years. There were regions, however, where tho work to bo done was so enormous and costly that it could not be attempted by men acting nlono or in companies. An irrigation enterprise must get on a revenue basis quickly or the interest on tho bonds, piling up with mathematical certainty, will throw it into .bankruptcy. "Somo of us believed in what rvas known as tho national policy of lie-vclooment'. lie-vclooment'. Other men thought tho public lands or their proceeds should bo given to the states and that tho states should work independently. Son ator Newlauds of Nevada, then n representative rep-resentative in congross. and George II. Maxwell, organizer of the National Irrigation association, wore of the opinion opin-ion that the government should do the work. Many bills were introduced in congress and conventions were held in different parts of the country to stir and cducato public, scntimont, but nothing noth-ing tangible wns accomplished until after Mr, Roosevelt became president. Ho signed the great reclamation act on Juno 17, 1902. How Money 13 Eopald. "As a concrete illustration of tho method h- which tho government obtains ob-tains the repayment of the money spent for irrigation enterprises, lot us fell' vou what was done in the case of tho Salt river project in Arizona. We estimated esti-mated that 220,000 acres of land would be reclaimed, or, in other words, that water would bo provided for that area of dr3' lands. Tho cost of tho dam, ditches, and so on, wo learned, would, amount to $45 an acre. So, following tho law, the land owned by tho government govern-ment was given to homesteaders froo of cost, but was taxed $4.50 an acre annual!' for a period of ton years. No interest was charged. Each 'farm was limited to 160 acres. An association of land owners was organized, in which there wore 220.000 votes, or one vote to each aero benefited by the project. A man with twenty acres, therefore, had twenty votos; one with 160 acres had .160 votes. Men owning own-ing more than 160 acros within tho 'one of irrigation had to soil tho surplus or go without water. Broadly, that is tho course followed everywhere. When the ten annual payments have been mndo tho land owners will take over tho dam, lake and ditches, and manage and maintain them under rules approved .1)3' the secretary of tho intorior, but aggregate; that up to the beginning of this year $7,050,000 had beeu spent on tho enterprise, and that the irrigated irri-gated lands aro now valued at from $100 to $750 an acre." Water Is Conserved. "Ordinarily, whoro does tho , water come from?" I inquired. "It falls to the earth during the the title to the property will remain with tho government. "Further, to illustrate what the government gov-ernment is doing constructively, lot mo add that the Salt river dam is 280 feet high and 10S0 feet long; that tho reservoir reser-voir is 25iA square miles in area; that tho canals "aro 264 miloa long in tho storms high up among tho mountains. Tho water rushe3 down into tho dry beds of tho valleys, doing great damage, and, swooping on, soon leaves the beds as dry as before. Wo conserve the water by erecting dams in tho mountains moun-tains and by creating artificial lakes that aro somotimcs twenty-five miles long. Then when crops aro growing in the valleys below, wo lot water through the spillways from time to time as it is needed." "By what method is the water applied ap-plied to the lands?" "Many of tho stream beds iu the mountains have a fall of ton foot to tho mile. Water, consequently, sweeps downward with a roar and soon disappears. dis-appears. Wo go back, lot us say, for ton miles and build a dam across the bed of tho stroam. Next, wo dig a canal ca-nal from tho dam running down the mountain and. off into tho valley, but we givo it a fall of only one loot to tho mile, which would make the canal, you oco, nine feet higher at a distance of one milo below the dain than is tho bed of tho old stream. At a distance of ten miles from tho dam, tho canal, tkcrcforo, is ninety feet higher than tho natural course of the stream. The water, hold back by tho dam, is lot into tho main canal anl flows to tho valley, whoro smallor canals take it to the farms and tho growing crops. What Ho Can Cultivate "A man, for example, owns land or obtains government land in ti region that is to be irrigated. Wo investigate and decide on tho size of the larm unito, taking into consideration the quality of the soil, the distance from railways and so forth. In somo places, wo limit a farm to twenty acres, in other places to forty acres, or to eighty , acres or oven to 100 acres. The theory the-ory is that no man shall have more land than ho can cultivate; that he must not plant forty acres and then let forty other acres go to weeds. Well, land having been bought from a private owner or acquired from the government, govern-ment, the settler clears it of sagebrush or cottonwood undergrowth, which is hard pioneer work. "Usuall', fivo acres aro cleared the first year. Tho ground is levclod by a drag mado of logs or an old stoel rail from a railroad .near at hand. If there are depressions thoy must bo filled. Water Wa-ter will not run up hill, and, therefore, tho land must be level, or nearly so. Gonerally, water is brought to a corner of a farm that may be slightly higher than the rest of the land. From that point il. is let in upon the crops, running run-ning down tho furrows of corn or sugar boets or the little grooves 'that have been left a I the planting of alfalfa seod or wheat. Too much water will ruin a crop, Water, consequently, must bo applied intelligently. Beets, whon thoy aro gathering sugar from, tho soil, sun, and air, do not require much moisture mois-ture In short,, agriculture by irrigation irriga-tion demands scientific knowledge, good management, and constant watchfulness. watchful-ness. Moreover, with the coming of water como pests to feed upon and destroy de-stroy tho orchards and the fields." Somo Money Is Needed. "Can n man Avithout; mone' take up a farm and meet with financial success?" suc-cess?" "Now and then some man has pros- pored, oven though ho hadn't a cent at 1 the start, but money say $2000 in , hand is needed in almost every case. A settler should have two teams of horses and the necessary farm implements.' imple-ments.' Besides, ho requires shelter for himself and his live stock. Tho first year nothing is obtained from tho land it is being cleared and tho farmer must havo bread and meat at dear prices and his horses must be fed. I know of a young wood polisher in Buffalo, Buf-falo, N. Y., who arrived at Sidney, Mont., with "JoO in his pocket. Ho went to work, saved his money, and now, at the end of Lhrce 3'ears, has 1G0 acres of land under fence, a house, and a barn and nine horses. "James O'llerin, a tenant farmer in Maine, went to the stato of Washington Washing-ton eight years ago with $500. He obtained a homestead in 1005 and sold it for $10,000. The money was invested invest-ed in a ranch, and O'llerin is now worth about $20,000. Robert IMcCor-mick, IMcCor-mick, a Minnesota lumber. jack, had 75 cents when ho landed at Zillnh, Wash., ten years ago. Ho worked as a laborer la-borer for a timo and then took up twenty-five acres of sagobnish and planted it in fruit. His vearly income is $2000 net. But all the men I have named were exceptionnl in their industry, indus-try, intelligence and pluck. Other Successful Ones. "The case of J. O. Shadbelt, a dry goodsmerchant in Minnesota, proves that money will make money almost anywhoro in irrigated reigons if prudently pru-dently invested and carefully managed. Four years ago he bought forty-one acres of bearing fruit trees near "Wn-pat, "Wn-pat, Wash. apples, peaches, plums, pears and cherries. He paid $18,500 for the land, which was the equivalent of $150 an acre, and spent $2500 for improvements. His friends predicted his ruin financially. Tn two years he refused $50,000 for his orchards. His profits in three seasons amounted to $10,000. II. M, Gilbert moved from Illinois Il-linois to Washington twelve years ago and bought twenty acres of fruit land for $1000. Eour consecutive crops of Wincsap apples paid him $1274 an acre each .year, ' and six crops of Elberta peaches brought him ."ijlOOO an acre annually. an-nually. His original investment of $1000 has grown until it has reached a marketable value of $80,000. I give you the names and locations of somo of tho men who have succeeded." Mr. Newell went on to say, "that the "possibility "pos-sibility of irrigated lands 111113- be understood un-derstood by the public and "that the economic valuo of the conservation policy pol-icy of tho government be appreciated." "How deep is the soil of the arid Jands, and will 'it ever need to bo fertilized?" fer-tilized?" 1 askod. ."In some places it is ten feet, in others it is fifty feet and in still others oth-ers it is too deep conveniently to measure. meas-ure. But the land, contrary to the universal uni-versal opinion, must bo fertilized just the same as other land. Men como to me and s:iv that the productivity of tho Nilo valley is maintained ycair after 3ear simply b3' tho overflow of the Isile river. It is true that the Nile spreads a good deal of mud over the surface of tho earth, buts several of the soil elements ele-ments aro lacking and tho farms of the Egyptians aro fertilized with manure, dead animals and even with mummies. Soil- Needs Invigorating. "The storm waters of our mountains contain some of the ncccssar- soil chemicals chem-icals and irrigation helps to ourich the land, but water does not supply tho nec-essar3' nec-essar3' nitrifvino- elements, "either in wet or dry localities. It is customary therefore, to plant, a ficldin beets, potatoes, po-tatoes, corn, or wheat, for a time and then to sow it to alfalfa, and after harvesting a number of crops, to plow the alfalfa under. Tho roots of alfalfa aro rich in niter and thus the soil is balanced and kept from being impoverished." impov-erished." "What crops aro the most profitable?" profit-able?" "Alfalfa is tho best crop in money and is used to fatten cattle. Sugar) jH beets bring hr a largo return, bnt, ofil course, a sugar mill must be in the vi-j cinity. Fruits pn' handsomely wheal there aro transportation facilities. Wheat isn't largely profitable because the irrigated area of each landowner IH is limited, and the cost of the crop, all' thin era considered, is high." J "When all the dry lands have water. and all tho swamps are drained, will the food supply of the country be ado quatc for a long timo to come?" "You aro trying to get mo on what might be called the doubtful ground' of agricultural cconony," Mr. Newell-answered. Newell-answered. "Crops will be immensely increased, without doubt, but; in tho mpantimc the population will grow with our supplv- of flour and moat. You havo suggested a never-ending argu-ment argu-ment an inquir' that takes rank, -per-haps, with the one concerning tho prior-ity prior-ity of the hen or the egg. India, dense-ly dense-ly populated, with its big crops and crop failures, is on tho edge of a fam-ine fam-ine most of the time." "Private corporations," T said, "arer also spending millions of dollars on irri-gation irri-gation enterprises." 1 Indians. Built Irrigation Works. 1 "Oh, yes. Irrigation projects in this country reach back to the works built by the Indians of the southwest 500 3'ears ago, and it' may bo 1000 years ago. We cannot telj luiw many acres-of acres-of dry lands have been reclaimed in the past by companies and corporations of men operating in different parts of the-west, the-west, but tho total acreage has been! very large." ''Arc irrigation bonds, so generally, offered to the public, a safe form of inn vestment?" "Some arc good and some are bad andi some 'problematical.' No one should! buy an irrigation hond unless he knows. IH all the facts, and tho facts are hard to! HH get. Lawyers and engineers of thei I east cannot inform themselves about nm H irrigation project without a long and1 H skillful stud- of tho situation. In the H first place, the irrigation laws of our 4H states are a disgrace to tho nation. They Cm conflict with one another and are not? j H alwaya applicable. We have based all I of our legislation, j'ou know, on tho I B statutes of England, which is a humidt HI country, and thoreforo we are behind! Bfl some of the dry countries which, in ourj I I opinion, are scarcely better than bar- I II barous but the3" have been wrestling! H with the water question for many con- j f urine Ii 1 "An eastern law-er may hco the IJH water rushing through a western river. I Hi in the wet season. The banks are fullJ MH The lawver does not know that iu ai month tho bod of tho river may be dryj UVJ as the ground on which he is stjind-j IVJ ing. Nor docs he know that nppli- fAl cations for water, covering a dozen! NHJ counties, perhaps, more than equal then capacity of the river, oven in the tima of it's highest flood. Unless he is thor-oughly thor-oughly informed about the records of) HJ all the counties and the actual condi-! HH tions along the river, his report to the- HJ clients who sent him west will be abso- JHH lately worthless7 nHH "Has the government any farms ta HBV give awuv?". HHa "Yes, about 600 of them, in the states of Montana, Oregon, South Dakota' and "W-oming. The farms vary iri .HH size from twenty acres to eighty acrea a piece. The water right will cost tho jH settlers from $30 to $60 an acre, or from $3 to $6 an acre annually for ten years after that there will .be no expense except for maintenance, and it will bo little more than nominal." |